Fox is losing with the World Series

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 31, 2008 by Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Phillies and Rays fans may not care, but the World Series has made the Fox network a loser so far.

Through the first four games, the Series has been averaging 13.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The previous least-watched series was St. Louis' sweep of Detroit in 2006, which averaged 15.5 million viewers.

A killer for Fox was the potentially Series-turning Game 3, which didn't get started until after 8 p.m. MDT Saturday, ending in the middle of the night. It had fewer than 10 million viewers, or less than moderately successful prime-time series such as "Ghost Whisperer" and "Worst Week."

Having a Series with two Eastern teams with limited national constituencies, particularly Tampa Bay, hasn't helped Fox either.

With the resumption of the suspended Game 5 scheduled for prime time on Wednesday, Fox may have a hidden silver lining. The game will start up again in the sixth inning, meaning early-to-bed fans may actually have the chance to see the game's conclusion.

Fox wasn't even able to win the ratings race for the week, a rarity for when the Series is on, but it did finish on top among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic advertisers love.

There was little movement at the top of the ratings, with CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" leading. But no prime-time program drew 20 million viewers.

For the week, CBS averaged 11.4 million viewers (7.2 rating, 12 share), Fox had 10.9 million viewers (6.7, 11), ABC averaged 10 million viewers (6.4, 10), NBC had 6.1 million (3.9, 6), the CW 2.2 million (1.5, 2), My Network TV 1.6 million (1.0, 2) and ION Television 530,000 (0.4, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 4.1 million viewers (2.0 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.2 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura 610,000 (0.3, 1) and Azteca 140,000 (0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.4 million viewers (5.6 rating, 11 share). ABC's "World News" had 8.1 million (5.5, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.2 million (4.2, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,145,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Oct. 20-26, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 19.49 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 18.5 million; "NCIS," CBS, 17.23 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 16.35 million; "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 15.95 million; World Series Game 4: Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, Fox, 15.48 million; "The Mentalist," CBS, 15.28 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 15.01 million; World Series Game 1: Philadelphia at Tampa Bay, Fox, 14.634 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 14.63 million.